


Looking Up

by mindlessadri



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, POV Third Person Limited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:31:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mindlessadri/pseuds/mindlessadri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bert and Annie have been best friends since childhood and now that childhood is ending how has their relationship changed? - if at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking Up

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Bert/Annie week on tumblr for Day 1: Height difference.

They had known each other since they were kids but it hadn’t been until they were half way through middle school school when Bert had suddenly started growing. Annie had never been tall to begin with so it was only a few months until Bert had not only caught up with her but surpassed her. Bert only continued to grow until reaching his max height of six foot two in high school. Until that point in middle school however Annie had somehow been taller than him.  
Now they were seniors in high school, three days away from graduation, and seven days from when Annie would board a plane to boot camp. Lately, Annie found herself looking at Bert and her gaze lingering as he laughed easily with his friends; they didn’t really run in the same circle anymore since Bert was in IB classes. There had always been a very clear line in her mind defining what her and Bert were to each other. They were best friends in a way that made them feel more like family but in the last few weeks she had started to wonder why her stomach was twisting in knots when she thought about the distance between his soon-to-be college and her soon to be camp.   
It felt like there was this growing space between them as the year came to the end; as if they were less like best friends and more like strangers. Quite honestly it made her uncomfortable. Bert had been the only constant in her life and she the only constant in his. She’d been there for him when they were young and kids were dumping sand on Bert. When some kid ripped up his science project out of jealousy. She’d even been there when his parents divorced in the sixth grade. She supposed she couldn’t help but worry for him now that he would be off on his own; but that didn’t explain the sinking feeling in her chest.  
It was the night after graduation and the two of them found themselves walking home from a party two streets over. Bert was talking in his usual carefree way - he really had grown out of his nervous self that needed her and blossomed into a bright young man once he started sprouting up. Who could blame him - people started seeing him differently then.  
Annie suddenly became aware that Bert had stopped talking and she looked up to him. “Everything okay?” He asked. “You’re quiet.”  
She frowned and looked away, she hated how easily he could see through her. “Yeah everythings fine. I’m always quiet.”  
He left it at that for a few seconds before picking back up. “Why don’t you just tell me instead of letting me worry about it.”  
Annie stopped abruptly her entire body tensing because she didn’t want to talk about it but she also knew it was damn near useless to pretend with Bert. “I don’t know what’s wrong!” She snapped her mouth shut and picked up her pace.  
“Annie, wait. C’ mon just tell me.”  
She slowed down and veered off the sidewalk to the neighborhood park. “Things are changing,” she mumbled as Bert trailed loyally behind her. She didn’t open up easily and Bert knew this so she had full faith he would be quite until she was done. She hadn’t even known where she was going until she found herself digging the toe of her tennis shoe into the dirt of the sandbox. “When we were kids and we came to the park I would always chase everyone out of the sandbox. Remember?”  
“Sure,” Bert replied quietly. “You had to because they were always dumping sand over me.”  
Annie chuckled just a little as she pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Yeah I did have to. They would just pick on you for being different but you were a good different. You just liked to sit in there and practice math in the sand and read stupid books. Such a nerd.” She paused for a moment and she could feel Bert shifting uncomfortably behind her. “You were good different,” Annie repeated. “Not like me. I was different too that’s why we were such good friends so quickly.”  
“But you were good different too so it doesn’t matter.”  
Annie sighed heavily, “No. No I wasn’t. I was quiet, sure, but I was mean that was the only way you survived all the way until middle school. I was willing to be mean to everyone around us so that you could be good different. I protected you and I don’t know - I thought maybe you looked up to me.  
“But then you had to go and get tall and handsome and smarter. So you get pulled out remedial classes and you make friends with other people like you and now you’re going to go to college and be some sort of scientist. And now I’m stuck looking up to you!” She turned around with a flourish gesturing at his height, “Literally.”  
Bert rushed her and scooped her up into a crushing hug, “Annie. I’m always going to look up to you. You’re strong, and self-sacrificing, and caring even if you don’t know how to show it.” He put her down, “Just because I got taller doesn’t mean I stopped looking up to you.” He sat them both down on the edge of the sandbox. “You’ve been by best friend all my life Annie. In comparison to you I’m average at best. You don’t just take care of your problems you take care of mine.”  
Annie let her head drop onto Bert's shoulder. “Don’t let the kids pour sand on you in college, okay?”  
Bert bent down and kissed the top of her head. Suddenly the difference between them didn’t seem so big.

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's short and not particularly shippy so I apologize.


End file.
